1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inspection method and an inspection device for an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag used in an RFID system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently an RFID system for transferring predetermined information by performing communication in a non-contact manner between a reader/writer and an RFID tag attached to an article has been practiced as an information management system for articles. The RFID tag and the reader/writer each include a radio IC element for processing of a high-frequency signal or a feed circuit and an antenna.
An HF-band RFID system utilizing a frequency band of 13 MHz and a UHF-band RFID system utilizing a frequency band of 900 MHz are generally used as the RFID system. In particular, the UHF-band RFID system is promising as an article management system because of having a relatively long communication distance and being able to read a plurality of tags in a batch.
As a system for inspecting, prior to shipment, whether or not the above-mentioned type of RFID tag having been manufactured is acceptable, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-181246, for example, discloses a system for conveying a long sheet on which a plurality of RFID tags are arranged at predetermined intervals, and performing communication with respect to the individual RFID tags for inspection. With this system, however, because the communication is separately performed on the individual RFID tags such that the RFID tags will not interfere with each other, i.e., because the communication and the inspection are carried out in a closed system per RFID tag, a lot of time is required for the communication and the inspection. Moreover, because a long sheet is used, the inspection cannot be performed in a state where a predetermined number of RFID tags are arranged on a collective base member.